Are you kidding me??! Shane, Chuck and Luis are the back bone of the rockets! The strongest back bone since the days of the Dream even. We lose Shane and we may as well be the Grizzlies!!!!
I agree. It is just hard to tell at this point if the Tracy-Yao experiment is over. If it is, it might be smart to clear up some money so we can offer a max...
Morey puts all his chips on 2010's summer, he doesn't care 2009. We would see Wade and Yao combine together in Toyota centre next year. Pls put all your focuse on AB, he would become the second AI this year, i bet for it.
Luis,Shane and Chuck are valuable but they cannot lead us to the playoffs without Yao and McGrady. Even if we do, it won't help us much in the future. It's better to look for young talent,I'm not sold on Z's expiring contract, because Yao's player option is 14 M and we aren't getting a high pick or a young player with genuine upside either. The younger players will have to paid as well,if they do well. Luis and Shane deserve to be on a contender instead of being on the Rockets. We can not ever rely on the brittleness of Yao and the physically and mentally injured McGrady. Rebuilding is far more painful,and undoubtedly risky but it's more likely in the long run to yield bigger dividends. Chuck will remain the same as he has always been,and Luis/Shane will work hard but their respective limitations,Luis on defense,and Shane on offense will show up even more than usual in Yao's absence. If DM can get a good deal for either one,he should trade them.
I'd trade Shane for the right deal, for Big Z? Hell naw, what would be the point? I'd want 2, two, TWO potential type guys for Shane, nothing less, and even then I'd hate giving up a solid like Shane for potential.
We all agree that we aint contenders this year but that could change within the next one or two years with Morey on board. We ought to evaluate the status of Tracy and Yao after they return to action before we draw a conclusion here. We will know more by tradeline.
NO CHANCE.. YOU DONT TRADE AWAY A GUY LIKE SHANE BATTIER FOR A SALARY DUMP THERES NOT TO MANY GUYS LIKE HIM THEY DONT COME AROUND THAT OFTEN...HES THE GLUE AND BACKBONE OF THE DEFENSE AND THAT LOCKER ROOM
Big Z is not THAT worthless, (Jeff Van Gundy believes he could be better than Shaq), and his expiring is ALSO not THAT worthless.
Its gonna be really hard to evaluate and plan for the future currently with this team right now. Because lyk u know we never know if Yao Ming is gonna come back from his injury after the next season fully healthy and return to the dominant powerhouse that he is(WAS) in the seasons before he's taking this monumental surgery. so its gonna b hard to pinpoint whether we can still build around Yao? Or make him into a Zydrunas Illgauskas type player and get a bigger star to be the number one option on this team and let him play a supporting role in the big "2 3 or 4" that we're gonna hav in 2010-2011. Will t-mac resign? Hugely doubt it...but even if he comes back healthy and returns to allstar levels, its STILL hard to decide if hes gonna be perenially injured again after we resign him... so I think the plan is just to gather as much talents as possible with the forecast of tanking the current season to make a full-steam-ahead approach in 2010-2011.. to do that we gotta trade away shane...cos right now he is the one making his teams into contenders...but since we have no star power hes just useless here...we might as do something with him while he can still do something with his skills
capitals are scarrrrrruuuuyyyyyy man we aint gonna cut anyones heads off or actually do this deal so chill... shane is a jvg player...so under adelman...u dun reckon it makes sense so we get someone thats da glue and backbone of da OFFENSE?
I just dun really think Shane is redundant, he is the only locker room leader and the right arm of Adelman - see article about him studying defensive schemes and tactics not just a JVG player, he evolved into something..somebody beyond that. He is who leads by example with our young core of players that is necessary to have. It is underrated but with Yao out he is his principal substitute. I am with all the guys who say he is hard to replace. He gives you so much beside intangibles, he is the type of player who can do really well as a coach at this point of his career already. IMO Yao and Tracy are injury prone right now and they peaked already. They know it and they have to contemplate about getting a paycut. Otherwise it is likely that they leave. More Tracy than Yao IMHO.
It would be very risky to depend on next year's free agent class. There is no surety that a big name free agent would sign here. It is best to work with the expiring by the trade deadline or earlier. If the opportunity does not present itself then gamble that next year would net the team a superstar.
Shane is all that I agree but is that really what we need at this point? If I wanted that kind of coach-on-the-court and a leader to guide along our young players, he'd be one hell of a luxury to have. Note the word LUXURY. I'm sure hes probably the most intangiblest guy in the whole league, and his basketball smarts are off the frekin charts. But I don't think I want to pay a guy 7 million and give him 35 minutes while he's at the twilight of his prime to do that while taking away minutes from higher-upside greater-potential players stunting their growth and development. Shane would much be better suited to a CONTENDING team with the need for a defensive glue guy leader such as Miami Heat or the Portland Trail Blazers when paired next to a star shooting guard like D-Wade or Brandon Roy. For Battier's own sake he'd be much more successful in a setting like that where he'd make a major more-noted impact on the team compared to rotting in Houston where we don't exactly have a young prospect with massive upside to groom for the future like Brandon Jennings or Michael Beasley or something. On the other hand we'd benefit a LOT greater if we got a young high upside shooting guard for Shane. Trevor Ariza is basically signed on for the next 5 years as Shane's successor and if we got someone like Rudy Fernandez our future, whether we'd still be with Yao and Tmac or not, would be a whole lot greater. Shanes only going to get worse from now on. If we wanted a veteran leader whos got the smarts and can guide the young players along I'd rather just go out there and sign someone like Anthony Parker or something rather than using a 7 million Mr-No-Stats-All-Star to do THAT
I do think Miami would love Battier, and would think about letting Beasley go for him. I like that idea A LOT. Yao-Scola-Beezy front line, and if it does not work out we can just re-build and let Beezy put up 30 a night for a little while we tank for picks....Like the Thunder...
Saleem, I'm just not ready to compute the idea that the team that took the Lakers to 7 games in the 2nd round just several weeks ago should be blown up and that we should go into full rebuilding mode. While trading Battier might make some sense with the acquisition of Ariza, especially if we got some good young talent with potential, like Portland has in spades, trading Scola puts us right back where we were for years... without a solid, dependable 4 that eats up rebounds, is a scoring threat, can operate down low, pass the ball, and who plays good team defense. Luis does that. Luis and Carl does that as one of the top combo power forwards in the league, IMO. Trade Battier for the right package? I'd reluctantly consider it. Trade them both? Not a chance. Not if I were the GM. I would also consider trading Landry if, in both those possible deals, we ended up with a young replacement for him, with potential. I'm that confident in Scola to pick up the new guy and pick up the slack.
He probably would not but at this point the team has no choice and there are no immediate options that can solve this glaring problem.
We agree to disagree on that topic. I understand why you are worried but our perspective is not all doom and gloom. I give you that at the 2 and 3 spot there are some question marks but I believe we can develop some players there so no worries. I am more curious to see if Andersen pans out and address the Center Spot instead. We already have trade baits in our young players Brooks, Lowry, Landry...what we also have is the huge contract of McGrady.
I've been wondering, assuming Battier's minutes stay about the same, what are the odds his points/game actually go down this season? You'd think his scoring would have to go up, since he'll have a bigger role on offense with Yao, Artest, etc gone. But then again, his points/game has gone down each of the last 2 seasons, and his PER and points/minute have gone down each of the last 5 seasons. If I could start a thread, I'd ask people what they think is the over/under for Battier's points/game in 2009/2010.
